Unconscious motivation helps us overcome challenges

A new study has suggested that apart from will power other mechanisms are required to motivate people to continually perform at a high level.

Researchers found that internal, unconscious motivation can significantly improve our performance capabilities.

Prof. Hugo Kehr from the Chair of Psychology at Technische Universitat Munchen said that there are three components to motivation.

The first is our conscious objectives and desires. Second is the unconscious, implicit motive, which is deeply rooted in our emotions and can include the desire to do things well, have an impact on and control over others, and engage in interpersonal relationships. While the third motivational component builds on the skills and capabilities that we bring to a role.

To research the effect of the unconscious motives, the researchers gave their subjects a task that required them to overcome a certain challenge. They then looked at how much willpower they had left for a second challenge.

In the first part of the study, subjects were shown a key scene from the movie Dead Poets Society, in which an overbearing father emphatically forbids his son from being an actor. One group of participants was asked to re-enact the scene, taking on the role of the father.

In the second part of the experiment, the experimenter showed the participants one of the funniest scenes from the animated film Ice Age and asked them not to smile or laugh.

They discovered that participants with a stronger power motive found it easier not to laugh during the Ice Age scene.

"We can conclude from this that they were able to draw on their internal motivation while completing the first task - and so they had more willpower left for the second task," Kehr explained.